OT: How Amazing

[geoschmo]

Actually those technologies you mention are not as far away as you think.

We already have crude artifical ears. It's called a cochlear implant, and it's in wide use already. In fact one of the biggest detrements to them to this point is they work so well that many deaf people are resistant to it on philisophical reasons.

We may have artificial limbs that respond to thought commands and give tactile feedback to the sensory centers of the brain within the next decade or two. They already have labratory experiments with primates that have shown remarkable success.

Artifical eyes will probably take more then ten years. What they are already working on is a sensory device that you wear like clothing that gives feedback to the brain about objects around you. It's not the same thing as eyesight, but the brain uses it as visual clues. Some studies show we are very close to a practical device sensite enough to allow differention between different peoples faces. Actual artifical eyes that are implanted and give the same kind of information as biological ones are probably far off, but I would expect they will be much closer to decades then centruries

[Imperial]

I agree, I have some vision problems due to surgery on both eyes from complications with juvenille diabetes. Would be neat to see advances to restore and improve vision. they actually did develope a kind of "visor"--i cant recall the specifics, but i saw it on the news. perhaps before long the technology will advance. (we need to build more reasearch center III )

[Atrocities]

I am blind in my right eye and loosing vision in my left and for me life is not worth living without vision.

It is easy for someone to say otherwise until they themselves walk a mile in my shoes. Only then will they understand how very important sight is.

[ March 24, 2004, 00:31: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Suicide Junkie]

One good thing is that for people who have not been blind from birth, the brain is already wired and trained to process colour, depth perception, word shapes and all sorts of similar skills.

Simply providing a bridge over some damage to a brain that is ready and waiting for visual info is a much simpler prospect than trying to give someone a sense they have never had the use of before.

[Atrocities]

That is an excellent point SJ. Thank you for making it.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
I am blind in my right eye and loosing vision in my left and for me life is not worth living without vision.

It is easy for someone to say otherwise until they themselves walk a mile in my shoes. Only then will they understand how very important sight is.

It seems to me then that this is an issue you should be talking to blind people about. There are a lot of living blind people, so I would guess that there are a lot of blind people who have found compensations.

[Captain Kwok]

If they layed off some of the harshness re: stem cell research, we might even be able to regenerate your eyes for you Atrocities!